What do I do with my life- the question has somehow bothered most of us human beings at different points in our lives.
Especially, when we are in school or college, and feel lost, we wonder desperately, “what should I do with my life?”
Somehow it is a complex question to answer for the human breed, when it shouldn’t be. I will give you the simple answer to start with, and then we will move on to the explanation.
Question: What should I do with my life?
Answer: Do what comes naturally to you, and do what makes you happy.
Birds fly
Have you ever thought, if birds after are born, wonder at some point what should they do with their lives?
Birds do what comes naturally to them. They fly and they find food wherever they get, and then they fly. They keep flying all day and then repeat the same process over and over again.
Do what birds do– what comes naturally to you, because what comes naturally to you would make you happy.
Why do we humans struggle to answer the question- what do I do with my life?
There are several reasons.
1. Social pressure makes it difficult to choose things you love
Your family or people around you tell you to take up a certain kind of a subject-stream or a career like engineering or medical profession, but you have no interest in those areas whatsoever.
Now, if you say no to them, they might tell you that you are a terrible student/son/daughter, and because of that fear, you continue studying or working on things you hate, which suck the life out of you.
At the end of every terrible day, doing stuff you hate, you end up wondering, what the fuck should I do with my life?
By the way, fuck society.
2. The society isn’t structured around happiness
The society isn’t structure around happiness. It’s structured around the thinking of the mob, which drives everyone’s lives. Most of the people in the society are unhappy people and misery loves company.
Unhappy people do not like happy people.
So, they keep trying to recruit more and more unhappy people. If you want to be happy, you end up wondering, what should you do with your life.
3. Short term materialism makes conscientious people delusional, making them wonder – what do I do with my life
Just look around. 90% of people have short-term thinking. Building something of your own demands that you exert concerted effort over a period of time. That’s long-term thinking and it’s needed for entrepreneurship or pursuing any form of art, or building a blog for that matter.
But most people who have never had the guts to work for themselves, do not understand that. They need a monthly salary, and they cannot understand why would business or art doesn’t provide that, and how could someone live without that.
These same people would admire successful artists and businessmen, but if they find someone on the journey, they would try and demean their efforts and discourage.
4. Making a fish climb the tree
All of us have different talents. Some of us are good at mathematics and some of us are good at art. The person who is good at art, should do art and the person who is good at math, should do math.
The problem is that we force the person who wants to do art, to do math, because math is popular. As a result, he forgets art as well, and sucks at math anyway, and left with no hope for life, because to him, hope and happiness means art.
Einstein said it far better than I could:
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
If you are a fish, swim. And, if you are a monkey, climb the tree.
We are meant to do, what nature intended us to do, and not keep wondering, what do I do with my life.
Let me come back to my point about birds.
Birds fly. They don’t ever have to wonder what should they do with their lives. If you are struggling to find out “what should I do with my life,” here is a set of actions I recommend:
5. Do what makes you really happy- “what do I do with my life”
Follow your happiness. To hell with what everyone else is saying. If those people were important to you, they would care how you feel. If you are struggling with this basic question about life with people you think care for you, they don’t fucking care for you, even if they are your family.
“What should I do with my life?”
Do what makes you really happy, and keep doing it till you figure out how to make it professionally work.
6. Use self-awareness questions to answer what should do with your life
You can ask yourself a few questions, which would reveal you to you. The problem is that most people don’t take the time to ask themselves these questions, and just follow the herd.
You are lost. That’s a good place to be. Most people are going in the wrong direction and they don’t have the courage to admit. You are at a good place because you are being honest with yourself, when you admit you are lost, and don’t know “what do I do with my life.”
Use some of the below questions to understand your situation:
- Why do I feel lost?
- Was I happy in the previous situation- why/why not?
- If I was happy, can I figure out a way to get back to what I was doing in a different way?
- Let us start from the beginning, what things or people make me happy. Is there a way I can do what makes me happy?
- What stops me from doing what makes me happy?
- Who stops me from doing what makes me happy?
- What steps do I need to take to get in a better state of mind, where I can think about what to do with my life from here?
- Who can help me to get out of this situation?
- Do I need medical help- if yes, where can I get it?
These are some starting questions. Please take them as examples of what you could ask yourself to move your life in the direction of happiness.
7. Don’t lose heart. You will find a way.
To lose heart means to stop believing that you can succeed. I know, you may be feeling quite lost right now, because you are wondering, “what do I do with my life,” but I want you to believe in your ability to work hard and to solve your problems.
One of the reasons we feel lost is because our belief in our ourselves dwindles. Don’t let that happen. Your belief in yourself is at the heart of your life. Even if you are wondering right now, “what should I do with my life,” it’s a matter of time before you find out the answer to the question.
It is not a permanent problem. Please don’t lose heart.
8. To figure what to do with your life, think what kind of life you would want to live
Irrespective of what stage of life you are at, you would want to decide the kind of life you want to live. In most of the cases, the decision about what to do with your life is a professional decision. You are either starting out your life, or you are feeling lost because you have gone through a crisis.
Either way, you have an opportunity to restart your life since the life you knew has been uprooted. Take the time to think about the kind of life you want to live from here.
Remember, birds fly. They do what they are born to do naturally. You are also destined to do that, and life has brought you to this juncture so you can reevaluate your life and steer it in the direction of your dreams, and happiness.
9. Remember, it’s never too late to answer the question, “what do I do with my life” if you are unhappy
If you think you are the only one wondering what you should do with your life, you are wrong. The problem with most of us is that we go with the flow of life doing what most people do, and never really ask ourselves if we are in the right direction.
People become engineers when they wanted to be artists. Others marry people they don’t know because of social and family pressures. The society is full of people with no clue what they are doing, because they never really cared to ask themselves seriously, what they should be doing with their lives.
It’s not too late. Even if you are asking yourself at 40 or 45 or 50, what you should do with your life, you are in a far better place than a lot of people who never did ask themselves this critical question, and as a consequence felt lost mentally and intellectually, in a crowd which seemed like a stranger to them.
10. Do what birds do. They fly.
Imagine you are a bird. Birds don’t have a lot of talent. However, they can fly. They are born to fly. They look beautiful flying after all. We can only look beautiful doing, what we are born to do.
A clerk at the bank who hates his job doesn’t look beautiful doing his work. He is a spoke in a large machinery.
The consultant with a top consulting firm who makes a lot of money but doesn’t like his work is a cog in the machinery. He does make a lot of money which makes him a success in the eyes of the society but he feels dead inside. He doesn’t realize because nobody told him that happiness is success.
Millions of people around the world are unhappy with their lives while they look good in the eyes of their families, neighbors and the larger world, because they didn’t ever ask themselves honestly- what do I do with my life to lead a happy life? That’s the question to really ask ourselves. That is the complete question. Do not ask what do I do with my life. Ask what do I do with my life to feel happy, and lead a happy life.
In Conclusion
I don’t have much to write in the conclusion here. We have concluded what we needed to, in the last few lines. The question that you are asking yourself, “what do I do with my life,” is an incomplete and faulty question.
It will lead you into the rabbit hole where the majority of the human race is stuck. The question you instead need to ask yourself is “what should I do with my life to lead a happy life.”
Start from there, and remember, that birds fly. Metaphorically, you are born to fly as well, doing things you love, with people you love.
Why do I write this blog?
The purpose of this blog is to help you find your happiness. Please read the other posts on the blog, and follow so that you get updates when new posts are published. Please share the post with your friends so that they can also find their happiness. If you have any feedback for me, please leave it in the comments and I would be happy to work on it. If you would like to support my writing and this blog, you may please send a donation through PayPal here.
I appreciate the time you spent in reading the blog and wish you happiness.
Love,
Amarvani
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